One scathing email, two failed mover negotations, two large going-away meals within three hours of each other, one supervisory smackdown, three hotel getaway scheme needs assessments, one unplanned wander around the midtown area, and one half-accurate and hilarious description of my job later, I'm feeling quite a bit better thank you. I would like to go see Batman again, and then I think everything will be set to rights.
No more cell phone driving Ontario? OK. The telecommunications industry and its foibles has been much in my mind of late, but due to various conflicts of interest I will have to publish my findings at another time. Until then, please do not call me while I am driving.
In the more immediate future, I need a couch.
On another topic, I'm not entirely sure how we got a hundred and nineteen shows into this deal before stumbling upon the title "Mamo a Mamo," but we've finally arrived, and with that clever bit of pun titleage, my esteem for Matty Price has grown another hectolitre. Here's Mamo #119: Mamo a Mamo, in which further Batmania is discussed.
And in the "let's further prove that we just don't get it" sweepstakes, Sony is trying to widen the Spider-Man movie platform with a Venom spin-off. I for one couldn't be more thrilled: Spider-Man 3 being the only entry in the series that I can actually enjoy (I own it on Blu-Ray!) and Venom being the worst thing about that awful, awful movie, I must expect that a Topher Grace-headlined Venom flick would be fan-fucking-tastic, not just in a so-good-it's-bad way, but also in a so-bad-it's-hallucination-inducing sort of way. I can see molten rivers of obsidian CG goo in my mind's eye right now... hopefully they relocate the story to a smaller city in the American midwest where Venom arrives as a hapless outsider on the run... and have an orphaned kid involved, who forms a tender bond with the oil-slick-with-a-heart-of-gold Venom... It'll be the story of us, man, who we are right now, all us loners and losers and people made of glop out there. Yeah. That's moviemaking.
Three whole years of Mamo's extraordinary amazingtude have brought us right back to the beginning: Christopher Nolan's done a Batman movie, and holy shafizzle, they don't come any better than this. Matty Price and I recorded this Mamo on Tuesday night and not only did it turn out to be really, really long (which is always fairly satisfying), but also rather good (which is equally satisfying if not more so). Y'know, I'm just damn glad we've been doing this thing for three whole years with no sign of stopping. It's starting to feel like an actual Thing.
With Matty Price's road trip imminent (and he's not taking me!), we knocked off another Mamo, our last before The Dark Knight. Which makes this anniversary season: we actually crossed the three-year threshold last week (and MP and Leah and Sarafina and I had a generally stupendous dinner at Mercato to celebrate... buffalo mozzarella flown in that morning from Italy, mmmmmm), and given that Batman Begins was our first show, expect the TDK episode to be... gushy. You know, I haven't actually gone back to listen to that first podcast in a good long while. I should do that, just to see how completely clued out we were.
I must also regretfully report that I am completely lost when it comes to the subject of frappucinos.
On the subject of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan currently owns 88% of my brain. I can hear his voice in my head right now. It's calming.
No time for much of anything these days - too busy, livin', man! - but here's yer podcast. This week we do some reader mail, speculate on who would win in a fight (X-Wing fighters vs. Carrie Bradshaw's walk-in closet), and drool on Batman just a bit more.
Mamo #115: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Unwieldy Title That Robs the Movie of a Certain Elegance Required for this Kind of Thing to Work
I'm fairly sure one of our Mamo listeners actually stood up and warned us not to review Indy IV negatively - something about not wanting to be one of those hater thirtysomethings who can't enjoy a flick cuz they're just generally grumpy about everything. Well, grumpy or not... though film criticism is hardly our regular bag on this show, we spend about the first twenty minutes of this particular Mamo discussing what went wrong with the eminent archaeologist this time around. Then, we get into the numbahs. It's good to be Mamo.
Flick made money, anyway. I also wouldn't mind linking out to these tworeviews, not to pile on the hate, but just because I think they're rather well done.
Last night Daniel gave me a Final Cut Pro crash course on some of the VCR9 footage. Since I never kept that test footage from way the hell back in the day when Mark and I were fucking around with our first sound mixer, I kept this instead.
Also did a podcast last night, discussed the more intriguing possibilities Blue Matrix, had fairly excellent Pad Thai, and slept in the arms of an angel who don't take no shit off noisy downstairs jerkfaces.
Finally, there is reason to do Mamo each and every week. Our stacked May has already rolled out one chart-maker and has several more waiting in the wings... hence, Iron Mamo. A couple on the couches at the eerily-quiet Starbucks listened to us record the show and congratulated us afterwards, so it must be reasonably good, right?
For the last six people on planet Earth who hadn't heard this, Del Toro is signed and locked for The Hobbit and The Second Film, and is moving to New Zealand for 4 years to do it. Wish I was. There's a good interview on TORN here.
And for the other six people who hadn't heard, we posted a cracklin' Mamo last week wherein we laid down our picks for the summer of '08. I picked Indy; he picked Batman. It's '89 all over again at Mamo 112.
